Episode 158: Reforming the CRC - Equipping Leaders, Building Networks, and Casting Vision - Jason Ruis (Part 1)

“[The intent of the conference is to] build up the body of Christ and then help move the Christian Reformed Church further along the path of Reformation…[It’s] the culmination of what we do here…on a weekly basis…We want to help lead reformation in the Christian Reformed Church by encouraging and strengthening church leaders. We want to encourage you to be bold and engaged in the fight for biblical and confessional fidelity. And one of the ways we do that is by networking like minded church leaders and trying to give you tools for the battle and then paint a vision for what reformation might look like…The goal is to give a platform to the solid conservative pastors we have in our denomination…to have some really good networking…and to build a solid network of conservative CRC leaders leading reformation.” -Jason Ruis

Summary of this Episode

This week on the Messy Reformation, Jason offers a belated new year episode with some reflection of the podcast in 2023, promotion of the Messy Reformation Conference coming up this April, and also thoughts for us as we head towards spring classis meetings. First, a big thank you to all those who have been faithfully listening and sharing this podcast around the CRC. It’s been three years since this started, and there was major growth in 2023. Part of the expanding vision of the podcast involved bringing Trevor Mouw on for social media and myself (Dan De Graff) to write these summaries (thanks for the recognition, Jason). 

One of the cool things Jason points out is over the last 157 episodes, only one guest has been a repeat. That was Cedric Parsels who has become an expert on the topic of gravamen. There have been 65 guests, mainly active ordained pastors. Jason shares, “One of the reasons why we've been doing that is just to show how many good pastors we have in the CRCNA, and…we haven't had to work very hard to find these pastors or get pastors to sign up to be on the podcast. It's not like we have to dig in all the nooks and crannies of our denomination in order to find good solid pastors. They're all over the place. Sure, there are some pastors who we don't appreciate in the CRC who are causing problems and doing things that we don't want them to be doing, and sometimes they're the ones who are making the loudest noise and causing a lot of the problems. But…our normal, average, typical CRC pastor is really, really rock solid. Not only rock solid theologically, but has a good idea of what the church is, how the church should function, understands our theology, understands how to apply that to our daily lives. We are blessed in the CRC with this many good pastors. And we hope to keep having more and more of those conversations with new pastors as we keep moving forward.”

Jason shares a few stats for 2023. Unsurprisingly, the largest audiences are the U.S. and Canada, but there are also significant amounts of listeners in Germany and Australia. Spotify downloads doubled this last year, putting the podcast in the top 15% of all podcast downloads on that platform. “We're talking about what's happening in the Christian Reformed Church, but our denomination is not alone in this. Many other denominations are going through the same kind of reformation that's happening in divisions and splits, and so other people are tuning into this podcast, wanting to see what's going on here, and getting an understanding of maybe how that's going to apply to their own denomination or their own situation.” Part of how this growth and spread happens is because our listeners are sharing this with others.

Looking ahead, the first Messy Reformation conference is coming up April 15-17 at Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake, WI. This is a different type of conference than those offered by the CRC as well as Abide and big-name conferences. The intent is to help “build up the body of Christ and then help move the Christian Reformed Church further along the path of Reformation…[It’s] the culmination of what we do here…on a weekly basis…We want to help lead reformation in the Christian Reformed Church by encouraging and strengthening church leaders. We want to encourage you to be bold and engaged in the fight for biblical and confessional fidelity. And one of the ways we do that is by networking like minded church leaders and trying to give you tools for the battle and then paint a vision for what reformation might look like…The goal is to give a platform to the solid conservative pastors we have in our denomination…to have some really good networking…and to build a solid network of conservative CRC leaders leading reformation.” The conference on courageous leadership is not just for current leaders; it’s for anyone who wants to be engaged and involved in the fight for reformation. Please get registered by February 15 to be guaranteed lodging (he also shares some perks for early birds). 

The last thing Jason covers is how we should be preparing for spring classis meetings. First of all, pray–pray that God would continue to be at work. If you’re interested in joining like-minded believers, Abide hosts a weekly Zoom prayer meeting on Tuesdays. Second, find good delegates in your classis who are willing to go to Synod. Jason observes how in recent history, many conservative leaders have been complacent, wanting to stay home doing local ministry and letting whoever’s willing to go. It’s time to remember we covenant, not just with our local congregation, but with our classis and our denomination. We have responsibilities–not to the neglect of the local, but to be involved more broadly. Be discerning if God is working in you to put your name forward and also be thinking about who would make good officers. “That’s all we’ve got for this week.”